1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to glass sheet reforming. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a mechanism for removing heat from a mold during use of the mold to form a shaped glass article.
2. Description of the Related Art
Glass sheet reforming process involves placing a glass sheet on a mold, heating the glass sheet and mold to their respective forming temperatures, and forming the glass sheet into a shaped glass article. The mold is typically made of metal and often has to run at a surface temperature exceeding 500° C. in order to shape the hot glass without introducing surface damage to the glass or overly cooling the glass before the forming of the shaped glass article is complete. During the forming of the shaped glass article, the mold may need to be cycled up and down in temperature by more than 100° C. in a controlled fashion in a short period of time, requiring closely controlled cooling of the mold in order to produce uniformly shaped glass articles. In other cases, the ideal mold temperature in one location on the shaping surface of the mold is higher, e.g., 50° C. or more higher, than in another surface location on the same mold, requiring high and precisely controlled cooling on only part of the mold.